Currently available methods and products for creating a workflow schedule do not provide sufficient levels of information to determine inefficiencies or the use of excessive resources in the workflow schedule. A few currently available methods and products fail to provide a visualized representation of the workflow. Microsoft Excel®, for example, remains the tool of choice for creating patient schedules. However, a key drawback to Excel® is the lack of a visualized schedule which may result in any workflow related issues to impact the entirety of the schedule. Furthermore, Excel® is incapable of providing an interactive workflow schedule as disclosed in the present technology.
A workflow line chart may be implemented to better visualize the workflow. A typical workflow line chart may display the number of activities/tasks on a vertical axis and the duration it takes to perform those activities/tasks on a horizontal axis. In this manner, it is easy to visualize workflow issues because one can more easily see when two activities/tasks are scheduled for the same timeframe. Yet a key drawback to the workflow line chart is the difficulty in determining the source/cause of the workflow issue. In other words, in the context of a dialysis treatment center, it is difficult to determine which patient events are contributing to the workflow issues. Furthermore, currently available workflow line charts are limited in their interactive capabilities and often do not provide the user with sufficient capability to edit the workflow schedule.
In the context of a dialysis center, one problem to be solved is not the visualization of the availability of resources or the assignment of resources; instead, the aim is to visualize the workflow of the patient care staff in relation to the patients' scheduled treatments. Other currently available visualized workflow representations such as Gantt charts also fail to adequately indicate where workflow issues may arise. The Gantt chart fails to provide a quick visual method for the user to identify workflow issues, leading these workflow issues to be easily overlooked. Furthermore, a Gantt chart may not provide interactive capabilities to edit the workflow schedule.